


Moonlight

by deliriusblack



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Other, a little smutty at some point maybe, but seriously (siriusly) wolfstar is great, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 17:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5711233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliriusblack/pseuds/deliriusblack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus Lupin was just your average, everyday, teenage werewolf. <br/>Peter Pettigrew was sick of being an outcast.<br/>Sirius Black had had enough of his family. <br/>James Potter would die for his friends. <br/>Lily Evans was just trying to get through Hogwarts without killing anyone. <br/>Marlene McKinnon was only still at school for the guys. <br/>Mary MacDonald didn't want to be the sweet, innocent little girl they thought she was. <br/>Alice Lightwood was going to be brave enough if it killed her.</p>
<p>The Marauders are facing a period in their lives that's full of surprising changes. Will their friendships survive them?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: anything you recognize belongs to JKR and she is unfortunately not me

It had been a number of years since the last time Remus Lupin had been afraid of anything other than himself. But as he walked along the third-floor corridor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the broad daylight of a late Scottish morning, he imagined the horrors lurking around each corner, hidden behind every tapestry, and sneaking up behind him. 

As he rounded the corner, hoping to make it to his dormitory without any incidents, a familiar long-haired boy jumped out and tackled him to the ground. 

“Argh! Gerroff- get off of me, Sirius Orion Black! This is assault! I demand that you remove yourself from my torso this instant! I – can't – breathe!”

“You'd think, Moony, that after turning into a werewolf every month, a teenage boy on your chest would hurt considerably less,” drawled Sirius in his annoyingly honey-like voice. 

“Have you got him, Padfoot?” came a voice from down the hall. “We're coming in!” 

Remus knew what would happen next. It had happened every year since the day he turned twelve. He braced himself. There were more sets of footsteps and hushed voices than he expected. James had probably insisted that Lily come, and Sirius' girlfriend Marlene would be there, which meant that their best friend Mary had to come too. That's those three, and then his three best friends; Sirius, James, and Peter. 

Six people coming to torment him. He comforted himself with the knowledge that it would soon be over. He could go to his room and finish his Potions essay. He waited. 

“Ready, guys? On three. One... Two...” James must have given a silent “three” signal, because at that moment, six off-key voices began to sing. 

“Happy birthday to you,   
Happy birthday to you,   
Happy birthday dear Remus,   
Happy birthday to you!” 

* * * 

James Potter, romantic as he was, had something very special planned for a certain Lily Evans for dinner tonight. She, of course, had no idea. James was excited by the prospect of her finally agreeing to go on a date with him. 

He flounced around the Great Hall (although he would deny the word “flounce” if anyone happened to say it – he was prancing very masculinely), getting ready for the surprise of Lily's lifetime. Checking the Map, he saw that she was already on her way – probably hoping to finish her Potions essay in peace, as the Library was notoriously a popular snogging spot for third- and fourth-years. Bloody uncreative lot. A whole castle full of broom cupboards, empty classrooms, and abandoned stairwells (adorned with tapestries big enough to hide behind with a partner of your choice, no less), and they chose the Library? James shook his head, exasperated by the lack of originality the younger students seemed to possess, then remembered his task. Lily would be here any second. He motioned to a collection of first-years and stood by the door. 

* * * 

Lily Evans had had enough of the library. When she was a first-year, it had been her refuge, a place to go to get away when she was stressed or upset. She could lose herself in the enormous collection of books the library contained. She was there quite often; after all, she had been only eleven years old and was expected to learn the rules and culture of an entirely new society. Now, however, what had once been her safe haven had turned into the nightmare of her academic life; boon had become bane. 

Professor Slughorn had assigned a three-foot essay on the properties of animal products in Potioneering and their potential substitutes. While Lily loved Potions class normally, she objected (as a vegetarian) on moral grounds to the needless use of animal products in Potions. 

She'd gone to the library in the hopes of completing the essay. (She refused to admit that she should stop writing it, no matter how much her friends insisted that four and a half feet was quite enough.) 

When she arrived at her favourite table, however, she found that it was occupied by one of her best friends, Marlene McKinnon, which wouldn't have been a problem if it hadn't been for the fact that she was attached at the mouth to her arch-rival's best friend, Sirius Black. Sirius was a notorious womanizer, and Lily had warned Marley not to get too close to him. Clearly, this had been in vain, as they'd been dating for eight months. 

Of course Lily was happy that Marley had found someone. The two seemed to have tamed each other, as Sirius hadn't stared at Lily's, erm, assets, in quite some time, and Marley no longer made salacious comments about Anthony Goldstein's arse loud enough for the entire Great Hall to hear like the Don Juan-ette she had been before Sirius came along. (Marley now liked to declare that Sirius' arse was the only one that came close to Anthony Goldstein's out of all the Hogwarts men.) 

No, Lily had no problems whatsoever with Marley's relationship with Sirius. She only wished they would find a more creative place to snog. For example, the sixth-floor broom cupboard was quite spacious, and the tapestry of Ragnuk the First near the second-floor Transfiguration classroom concealed a secret passageway – if you stabbed Ragnuk with your quill and told him to bugger off, he would begrudgingly reveal a little-known shortcut to the Charms corridor. But no, they couldn't keep their paws off each other in the library, for Merlin's sake. The two were like bloody fourth-years. 

Lily checked her watch. Dinner was in a half hour, so the Great Hall would be very nearly empty. She could work on her Potions essay there. She sighed, resigned to the cognition that she'd not be alone with her books anytime soon. 

* * * 

James waited. 

* * *

With her nose buried in her Potions textbook, Lily hadn't noticed, standing in the doorway to the Great Hall, a silhouette. She was not, however, so absorbed in the properties of armadillo bile that she failed to realize something was... off. Did she hear singing? She looked up. Indeed, there was a small group of first-year students, carolling up at her. 

“Potter?” she asked tentatively. It had to be him, nobody else would arrange something so brash, so disruptive, so... sweet? 

“You called, oh mistress of my heart?” James Potter appeared beside her, leaving Lily confused, befuddled, and discombobulated. 

Lily had received a thesaurus for her birthday and was quite enjoying it. 

“Potter, really, why? Don't these kids have class?” Lily was past her surprise and starting to worry about the education of the children Potter had seemingly hired. 

“As you can see, Lily my darling, they have lots of class,” James pointed. “Look at their little tuxedos!” 

Lily looked. It was true, the singing first-years were dressed in mini Muggle monkey-suits, complete with top hats. She sighed.. 

“Potter, this is... cute, really, but don't you think it's a bit much?” 

“Not at all. Oh, I forgot to mention, they're going to follow you for the rest of the day. They only know two songs,” James added. 

Lily was almost afraid to ask. “Which two?” 

“Jingle Bells and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

* * * 

Sirius Black had snogged his fair share of people. Marlene McKinnon was one of the best kissers in Hogwarts, he knew, so why was his mind drifting so much? 

“Siri, what's up? You seem distracted,” Marley asked. She seemed worried about him. It was sweet, Sirius thought. Most girls he'd been with would be offended if his attention wasn't on them all the time.

“Sorry babe, I'm just so stressed out. I can't stop thinking about Remus,” Sirius mumbled worriedly. 

Marley raised an eyebrow. “You can't stop thinking about Remus? While snogging me?” 

(This was another thing Sirius liked about Marley. Most girls at Hogwarts thought the word “snogging” was vulgar and, for lack of a better word, boyish. Marley used it constantly. She also didn't object to “shag,” “bugger,” “bloody,” and another word so vulgar that Sirius had never said it again after Lily had slapped him the first time. In short, Marley talked like a boy, and Sirius loved it.)

Sirius paled, and then blushed, as he realized how what he said must have sounded. It was quite amusing, Marley thought, to watch his face go from normal to white to bright red in the span of a second. 

“That's not what I meant!” Sirius spluttered, making incoherent strangled sounds between words and waving his hands about wildly. “I just- he was so- I'm afraid he's mad at me for earlier, or- I'm not a flaming poof!” 

“Shut up, babe,” Marley said matter-of-factually. “Not,” she added, “that there's anything wrong with being gay. Right?” 

“Of course there isn't,” said Sirius, who had been brought up to believe that homosexuals were as bad as Muggles, and Muggle homosexuals were the lowest of the low. He of course disagreed with his upbringing as a whole, and that part as much as any other, but thought privately that while there was nothing wrong with it, he would certainly not want to be gay. 

“Glad you think so, because I've been doing a lot of thinking, and... I- well, there's no easy way to say this, Sirius, but Iamalesbianandwehavetobreakup.”

Sirius' face must have been a shocking shade of green or red (or both! Maybe he was Christmas!), because Marley couldn't keep a straight face and burst out laughing. 

“I'm kidding, babe! Merlin, did you believe me? I couldn't be a lesbian, you know how much I love your-” 

But the rest of the library was spared from learning what of Sirius' Marley loved so much, as at that second, James Potter burst into the library with a very strange look on his face. It must have been something akin to elation. 

“Oi, Sirius, mate, I need you! Marley, honey, excuse us. I'll bring him back,” James promised hurriedly as he, with no explanation, grabbed Sirius by the arm and pulled him from his seat in the direction of the door. 

* * * 

Remus had finally settled into the Common Room with Peter to study when the door burst open and two very breathless-looking teenage boys streaked in.

“Erm, Padfoot? Prongs? Where are your clothes?” Remus asked with his hand over his eyes. 

“Mary MacDonald hid them in the girls' dorm.”

Come to think of it, Remus had seen Mary rush upstairs with a bundle of clothes earlier.

“Right, but why did you take them off in the first place?” Remus asked exasperatedly.

“Well, I was in the library with Marley, and all of a sudden James comes in and drags me away, and- eurmph!” Sirius was interrupted by James clapping a hand over his mouth.

“My story. I tell it. So I'm in the Great Hall, about to execute Operation StagFlower (phase forty-one), and Lily comes in, and she's got her nose in some book. I swear, Moony, you guys are like twins. So the titchy kids are singing, and she looks up, and I swear on my broomstick, in the moment before she rolled her eyes and went to sit down, there was admiration in her face. I'm getting to her. One of these days she'll say yes, and we will get married and have seven children so we can form our own Quidditch team, and-”

“Story, Prongs. Clothes?” Remus interjected. He knew from experience that once James got started on Lily, there was no shutting him up. 

“Right-o, my furry friend. So I head to the library where Padfoot is studying, if you catch my drift. Studying Marley's throat with his tongue-” 

“Gross, Prongs.”

“Hey, just because you don't get any doesn't mean Pads and I can't. So anyway, I pull him out of there and tell him my plan for the next phase of Operation StagFlower. And he's all grumpy because he doesn't want to sabotage Lily's potion-” 

“Wait, what? Prongs, you can't just-”

“-so he says I should ask you or Pete to help. And I tell him no, it's got to be him, because he has the Quidditch reflexes that I need, because no offence, Moony, but your reflexes just aren't as good. And I can't ask Pete because he'll be in the storeroom cupboard, stealing the supplies I need-”

“What?” Exclaimed Peter wildly. “I can't steal, that's wrong!”

“You didn't mind so much when we were stealing food from the kitchens, Wormy.”

“No, but-”

“Guys!” Remus exploded. “Why are you naked?” 

“Right okay so I promised Pads that if he helps me, I'll owe him a favour. A big one. Anything he wants. And his eyes light up and he agrees, so naturally I'm a little scared. And he says he'll keep that promise in his back pocket, or his hindquarters, or whatever. So we're moving on, heading to the kitchens to nick some food from the house-elves when we run into Mary MacDonald, who of course wants to come with us and hey any friend of Lily's is a friend of mine, right? Wrong. We're all talking, joking around, when Mary makes a crack about our, erm, masculinity. And I tell her, hey, I drink firewhisky, I play Quidditch, I've got killer abs, I'm comfortable in my body, I think I'm pretty masculine. And Sirius here backs me up, something about his hair, I don't remember. Not important.”

“Hey!” Sirius protested indignantly. 

“Stuff it, Snuffles. So Mary tells us to prove it. Prove we're comfortable with our bodies by streaking across the Great Hall. And Padfoot is like, so enthusiastic about seeing me naked I guess because he immediately starts unbuttoning his shirt.”

“I am not enthusiastic about seeing you in the buff, James! I'm not gay. I just never turn down a dare. That pact I made in second year, remember?”

“Fine, but I like my version better. So we did it, anyway, and of course Lily is still in the Great Hall, so now she knows what she's missing at any rate-”

“Don't start with that. Why didn't you put your clothes back on?”

“We told you, Mary took them and hid them in the girls' dorms. All we have are our socks, and we considered using those to cover up, you know, but it was hard to keep them on and run at the same time.”

Remus goggled. “You have your socks and you didn't just Transfigure them into shorts or something?”

Sirius and James looked at each other. “We didn't think of it,” Sirius said sheepishly.

Remus waved his wand exasperatedly and the socks became two pairs of pants, fitting James and Sirius perfectly. They looked down at themselves. 

“That's some good handiwork there, that is, Moony,” James said in awe. 

“Yeah,” Sirius chuckled. “He's really good with his wand, right, Moony?”

Remus sighed. 

* * * 

Lily was in awe at herself. She knew that out loud, she'd told Potter to bugger off, that she wasn't going to go out with him, that he was a prat for taking the children out of their lessons. But below that cold, hard surface, a part of her kind of wanted to agree to go on a date with him. 

No. He was an arrogant toerag, and she would never like him. She resolved that this year especially, with NEWTs coming up, she would spend as little time with him as possible. She would be busy, anyway, with Prefect duties and revision and making sure Marley and Sirius didn't fail their classes because they were too busy being in loooove.

Love. Lily hated love. It was so demanding, yet so unreliable. Lily had never been in love, and she liked it that way. 

Sometimes, however, she thought about it. She imagined getting married to someone, and loving him, and she saw the appeal. An autumn wedding, a pale green dress, a faceless, nameless stranger saying his vows and telling her how special she is. Yes, Lily certainly understood why people were falling in love en masse, but it's called falling in love for a reason. She would not be risking the hurt that came with that anytime soon. 

Lily shook her head to clear it. She had studying to do and she wouldn't let Potter or weddings or Anthony Goldstein's arse distract her from it. 

* * * 

Mary collapsed into the sixth-year Gryffindor girls' dorm, holding a bundle of clothes and giggling. Alice Lightwood and Dorcas Meadowes stared, agape. 

“Did they really do it?” Alice asked, intrigued. 

“Yes! The pride on those two, really, I hear they never turn down dares. We can have some fun with them this year. Here are their clothes, now we just need Lily and Marley for the spellwork.”

Dorcas grinned a grin that would have terrified Grindelwald. 

“It is so on,” Alice said smugly. “They didn't really think they could mess with us, did they?” 

And thus, the infamous Prank War of 1975 begins.


End file.
